I finally finished the roll that’s been idling in the M6 for a couple of months. I took it out of the camera only to discover it was a roll of Portra 400. Color, dammit. I didn’t have any fresh chemicals. The only reason I have some C-41 mixed is that I’ve been too lazy to dispose of it. Screw it, I thought, and fired up the JOBO anyway.

Surprisingly, they didn’t end up blank or completely unusable. The color is inconsistent, but that’s always the case with me and color processing. At least I proved that you can keep C-41 chemicals mixed for almost a year and still get images from your film.

A roll of mostly self-portraits taken in the basement “studio”. A black cloth backdrop, Profoto strobe with an octobox on left, and a led panel off to the right.

Let’s face it, film is meant for well-lit subjects.

Every time I bring a film camera to somewhere like a restaurant or a friend’s house, I regret it. There’s just never enough light for candid snaps.

I had an old roll of Delta 3200 in the fridge, so I thought I’d see if that helped.

It didn’t.

I like grain, but not this much grain. Good grief.

A few from the most recent roll from of the Leica MP. It’s HP5 Plus, processed in HC-110 (dilution B) for 5 minutes. Scanned on the PrimeFilm XAs.
This roll is concerning because many of the frames have horizontal scratches, which could indicate a problem with the film pressure plate. There’s also boatloads of hair and dust. My process needs refining.

I’ve got nothing.

Two rolls shot at the MSU tailgate. One with the MP and HP5 and one with the Olympus OM-1n with expired XP2. Lots of missed focus. Lots of too-far-away. Lots of dust. It’s dampening my enthusiasm for film, but here are a few anyway.

Golden looking out back of party bus. (Leica MP. Summicron-M 35mm ASPH)

I miss Kodachrome.

I was able to shoot a few rolls before Dwayne’s Photo, the last shop capable of processing Kodachrome, stopped processing it for good. The last roll was processed on January 18, 2011.

For some reason, all of my original Kodachrome scans are fairly low-res, so I re-scanned the better images using my new Prime Film XAs scanner. Here are a few examples. It was beautiful film.

It had been a while since I used the Olympus OM-1n. The Zuiko 85mm f2.0 has been a favorite lens for a long time, so I put a roll through the kit while helping a friend take his boat and dock out of the water for the season.

The OM’s viewfinder is still one of the biggest and brightest I’ve ever used. The camera itself is actually smaller than a Leica M. It’s a great setup. Here are a few highlights from the roll.

My 1962 Minolta Autocord has seen better days.

I had an expired (in 2006) roll of Kodak BW400CN (C-41) film in 120 so I figured I didn’t have much to lose. The film looks ok, but the camera scratched the hell out of it on the way through. And the frame spacing was all over the place, including a couple of frames with no space between them.

The old Autocord was fun to shoot, but I think it’s time for it to retire. It looks cool on the shelf, so that’s something.